Travel&Tourism Ideation Session #1

2016-11-12


The first event from the Ideation Sessions series in the framework of Hackathon Travel & Tourism, took place in the coffee house Traveler’s Coffee and gathered over 60 stakeholders.

Ideation Session is an introductory event for an open discussion of the acute tourism issues in the Kyrgyz Republic.

For the majority of participants, the Ideation Session # 1 event became a platform for new acquaintances and knowledge, where together experts discussed the current situation of tourism in Kyrgyzstan, received valuable information from leading experts and learned how the brainstorm in the Silicon Valley is taking place.

In the Kyrgyz Republic, the share of tourism in GDP is about 4.5%, while experts estimate that the potential is realized by no more than 15%. The total amount of taxes from tourism reached 550 million soms. When realizing the potential of the tourism industry, the employment rate in this sector can grow from 95 thousand people to half a million. The state takes significant steps to attract an international audience to the country. So over the past two years, two large-scale events, “World Games of the Nomads”, were held, which attracted the attention of the world’s media. According to the latest ratings over the past year, Kyrgyzstan has entered the top 10 tourist destinations in the world.

Technologies in travel became an indispensable part, opened new opportunities, made new and more accessible new destinations. Every traveler reviews reviews on tripadvisor.com, can for seats in hotels and private offers on airbnb.com, chooses tours and tours on kayak and other tourist applications, reads reviews of places on Yelp, uses various applications with GPS to capture their routes , Photographs, shoots on video and share with others in social networks.

Despite the growth of tourism in Kyrgyzstan, there is a shortage of digital products, applications, web services, start-ups that would help market participants and tourists maximize the benefits of the tourist flow to the country.

For more effective development of the tourism industry, the KG Labs public foundation organized a hackathon.

Hackaton is a 24-54 hour programming marathon designed to bring together talented programmers, designers and industry professionals to develop innovative new applications focused on the development of tourism, using the web and mobile APIs. Hakaton products are designed to improve the tourism industry, as well as to offer working projects for industry participants.

Within the framework of this project, the KG Labs Foundation held a series of Ideation Session seminars.

Participants were able to get a complete picture of the current situation in travel and tourism in Kyrgyzstan, personally get acquainted with experts and experts in these fields and discuss the current problems of the tourist business.

Speakers of the event:

Marat Danilov, executive director of the NGO “Union of Pedestrian Tourism of Kyrgyzstan” will talk about problems, lack of appropriate advertising to attract tourists and the development of domestic tourism. And the speaker will share his impressions of the most interesting trips and trips of the Union.

Nurbek Saparov, executive director of the Kyrgyz Association of Tour Operators (KATO), about the importance of bills on visa-free travel for attracting more tourists and, in general, the role of the state in creating infrastructure in the tourism industry.

Razhiev Asylbek, Executive Director of the Kyrgyz Community Based Tourism Association, will talk about the peculiarities and potential of the tourism sector of our country, the role of families involved in ecotourism and how this practice in turn allows income for the inhabitants of the countryside and mountain areas and also the preservation of local culture And ecology.


Aziz Soltobaev, the head of the KG Labs Public Foundation, an expert in the field of technology projects and moderator of this meeting to share his knowledge about the existing in Kyrgyzstan technological projects in the field of travel and tourism in Kyrgyzstan.